AnitaB.org Welcomes New Executives to Achieve Ambitious Goal of 50/50 Tech Equity by 2025

Today, global nonprofit AnitaB.org announced that with its recent new hires it has fully staffed its Executive Team working on the ambitious goal of 50/50 intersectional tech equity by 2025. Three new hires join its executive bench to help achieve the company’s mission: Kety Maria Esquivel as Vice President of Marketing and Communications; Robert G. Read as Vice President, Business Development and Partnership Success; and Victoria Hughes as Vice President of People and Culture.

The three new appointees will join CEO and President Brenda Darden Wilkerson’s leadership team as the non-profit tech women’s organization looks to expand its global reach and continues to improve its roster of AnitaB.org/365 programs that help women and underrepresented communities gain access and career opportunity through technology.

Esquivel has been brought in to lead the world-wide marketing team, bringing more than two decades of global marketing and communications experience to the role. Prior to AnitaB.org, Esquivel led the marketing and communication efforts for top tier agencies, companies and nonprofits globally, most recently serving as an EVP for Edelman where she led the Consumer, Technology and Tourism teams. Read will lead AnitaB.org’s business development and partnerships teams, bringing more than 20 years of global experience in maximizing partnerships and driving media and entertainment technology solutions to the role. Prior to AnitaB.org, Read served as SVP at Universal Pictures in Los Angeles where he managed film and television content distribution across the globe. Hughes joins the organization to lead the global Human Resource (HR) team. With more than 20 years of HR experience, Hughes brings a focus on building a best-in-class culture. Previously, Hughes served as head of talent management at Delta Dental of California and head of talent solutions at Kaiser Permanente.

“We need the most ambitious, inventive and diverse leaders to propel us to global 50/50 intersectional tech equity by 2025,” said Wilkerson. “The unique backgrounds and combined experience these eleven individuals bring is remarkable. It’s an extremely powerful team who will not only drive the necessary change for AnitaB.org but also lead and inspire our partners, clients, and the tech industry holistically to achieve remarkable results.”

The new hires join an innovative bench of leaders that Brenda Darden Wilkerson has worked to assemble since she joined the company in 2017. A pioneer herself, Brenda founded the original Computer Science for All program, building computer science classes into the curriculum for every student in the Chicago Public Schools, which served as an inspiration for the Obama administration’s national CS4All initiatives. The full AnitaB.org Executive team includes:

• Dr. Jacqueline Bouvier Copeland, Chief Operating Officer, an award-winning global social impact executive, who has devoted her 30-year career to building high impact organizations that advance human rights and equity. Trained as a cultural anthropologist and urban designer, she has been recognized as a HistoryMaker by the US Congress for her leadership and created the initial design for the My Brother’s Keeper initiative, which was adopted by President Obama.
• Ylonda Davis, Vice President, Global Events and Customer Experience, a global events expert who has led strategic event management, customer marketing, end-user relations, partner marketing, and vendor management for Fortune 200 companies, including Apple, Intel, Symantec, VMware, and Marketo.
• Michelle Flatt, Vice President, Programs, a strong leader with a foundation in education having been an English teacher, a district-level leader, and most recently, a high-school Principal. Her work in education focused on interrupting the inequity that plagues communities of color.
• Maggie Inbamuthiah, Interim Managing Director, India, an entrepreneur who brings a deep technology background having worked across different departments including product vision and strategy, customer implementations, operations, business development, and marketing.
• Mary Kempski, Chief Information Officer, a seasoned technical leader who has led business operations, infrastructure, process improvement and application deployment at AnitaB.org for over three years and is responsible for strategic vision and execution of scalable systems and technology solutions.
• Jo Anne Lee, Chief Financial Officer, an experienced financial leader who has provided financial oversight to global business unit divisions and brings a unique understanding of established corporations as well as agile startup environments.
• Dr. Stephanie Rodriguez, Vice President of Policy & Engagement, an immunologist by training, who found her way to STEM education policy and advocacy through years of STEM-related community outreach, and service as a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation.
• DaWana Williamson, Innovation Lead, an engineer turned nonprofit operations executive with a proven ability to successfully lead, innovate, and scale programs and services in high growth environments.

The organization will host its annual Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC), the world's largest gathering of women technologists, in Orlando, Florida from October 1-4, attracting over 25,000 mostly women technologists from over 50 countries.

About AnitaB.org

AnitaB.org is a nonprofit social enterprise committed to increasing the representation of women technologists in the global workforce. AnitaB.org engages with tens of thousands of women and leading organizations around the world to build diverse and inclusive workplace cultures. Founded in 1997 by our namesake, computer science visionary Anita Borg, and her co-founder and fellow computer scientist, Telle Whitney, our organization works toward a future where the teams that create technology mirror the people and societies for whom they build it.

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Kelsey Quickstad
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